Insta360 shows impressive footage that is strongly reminiscent of Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo
A manufacturer of action cameras & Co. has published a spectacular video on YouTube. The hashtag of the video from Insta360 is: “RealLifeGTA”. However, this is not a GTA-style bank robbery or similar criminal driving
Instead, we see an elaborately produced video that looks like a next-gen Forza or Gran Turismo game. The footage looks extremely impressive and gives us hope for what racing games could look like in the future.
You can see for yourself here:
How was the video recorded?
Surprisingly, two 360-degree cameras from Insta360 were used to capture this impressive footage – the Insta360 X3, to be precise.
What is a 360-degree camera? Such cameras have two fisheye lenses that film in opposite directions – one facing forwards and the other backwards. Each of them covers a viewing angle of around 180 degrees. The videos are stitched together. In this way, the entire environment around the camera is recorded
This allows you to choose the image composition yourself after filming, or simulate impressive pans and tracking shots.
For the racing game video, Insta360 attached an X3 camera to the rear with a so-called “LexiMount”. This is a camera mount specially designed for racing cars.
A second X3 camera was mounted in the cockpit to implement dynamic perspective changes. Apart from the white balance and exposure compensation, no further adjustments were made to the cameras themselves. The rest of the magic was added in the edit.
You can take a look at the creation process in this video:
The Insta360 X3 currently costs 480 euros as a standalone device. There are also slightly higher priced kits for motorcycles, bicycles or winter sports enthusiasts. The camera films in 5.7K resolution, shoots 72-megapixel 360-degree photos and uses two 1/2-inch image sensors.
Alternatively, you can opt for the 200 euro cheaper Ricoh Theta or the similarly priced GoPro Max. The latter has a form factor that we are used to from action cameras.
What do you think of the recorded video? Have you ever used a 360-degree camera? How does the footage compare to today’s racing simulation games? Do you think that Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo have now reached a similar level or is there still a lot of room for improvement? As always, let us know in the comments!
